WPP Consolidating Its Atlanta Agencies Into New City's Fourth Ward
A Fortune 500 media, advertising and PR conglomerate is planning to set up a new campus at New City Properties' latest Midtown mixed-use project.
WPP has inked a deal for 39,500 SF at Fourth Ward, the under-development project bordered by Angier Avenue, Glen Iris Drive and Boulevard, less than a mile from Ponce City Market. WPP plans to bring together 400 of its employees to the project along the Atlanta BeltLine, consolidating 10 local agencies, including AKQA, BCW, GCI Health, Mindshare and ad firm Wunderman Thompson.
The new Atlanta campus is WPP’s sixth in North America and the first to be announced this year in the U.S., according to a press release. WPP expects to occupy the space by the second quarter of 2023. While WPP didn't reveal by how much its footprint is shrinking, the firm leases 57K SF at 3630 Peachtree for a handful of divisions, including Wunderman Thompson and Mindshare, and 7,800 SF for AKQA at 10 10th St. in Midtown, according to Avison Young.
WPP’s campus will include more collaboration space for its clients and space for WPP’s OpenX division, which is its global marketing partnership with The Coca-Cola Co.
“The Campus will also act as a unique new hub for Atlanta’s thriving technology scene,” WPP stated in the release.
CBRE Vice Chairman John Shlesinger and Senior Vice President Ryan Irvine brokered the deal for WPP.
This is the latest tenant win for New City at its Fourth Ward project. In 2020, Mailchimp announced it would anchor Fourth Ward, taking up 300K SF for its headquarters. The WPP deal pushes Fourth Ward to more than 80% pre-leased, New City President Jim Irwin told Bisnow at the time.
New City expects to open the project to the adjacent BeltLine trail in mid-January, the adjacent 359-unit apartment building in May and the 157-room hotel in the first quarter of 2024.
